<p>So all this time I focused my college plans on EE and Physics, and completely ignored MSE. But now that I look at it, MSE seems to be the perfect blend of physics, chemistry, and all sorts of engineering. Perhaps this could be for me. I did some searches, but very few obvious finds came up. So Id just like to ask about the job prospects, on what level of degree is typically required (BS, MS, Phd), average salary(not so important) and is it just a new field considering that it doesn't look really popular in undergrad?</p>
<p>From what i have learned from some MSE friends is that it is more chemistry than my ChemE friends which do a bit more physics! Not much info, just my 2 cents!</p>
<p>MSE is a field that’s grown from both metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, and even things like textiles and paper.</p>
<p>In it, you’ll get exposed to chemistry, physics, and also a lot of ideas that really only come up in a materials curriculum. For jobs, I recommend looking at some of the professional societies or schools you’re interested in and seeing where their graduates are placed.</p>
<p>You can definitely get a job with a BS, about half of my classmates did. The rest of us went for a PhD since a MS is fairly rare in our field. It’s a fairly research-intensive field, since many of the “well known” systems aren’t made in the US anymore (what’s left of metallurgy is mostly in specialty foundries where they can use research expertise).</p>
<p>MSE is a wide field and could be said to be the core of all engineering (because all engineering is based on materials and material properties). I.e. it’s practically applicable in very broad range of engineering activities and forms a good basis for expanding to other engineering fields.</p>
<p>The name of the field is new, because of what RacingReaver said:
“MSE is a field that’s grown from both metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, and even things like textiles and paper.”</p>
<p>What do you guys think, is it more chemistry based, or physics based?</p>
<p>It’s both, chemistry and physics. If you removed the physics, you’re left with a chemistry major :)</p>
<p>Take a look at an example of the courses required for a BS. You’ll see mixture of Physics and Chemistry type programs.</p>
<p><a href=“https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/engineering/majors/materials-science-and-engineering.aspx[/url]”>https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/engineering/majors/materials-science-and-engineering.aspx</a></p>
<p>Haha I know that gator. But what i meant was that, upon searching up different threads on it, it seems a lot of people associated MSE with ChemE or Chemistry when deciding majors. I am more lenient towards physics. I got a 5 in AP Chem but at some points, I just did not find it fascinating or maybe I was just annoyed at some of the more nasty Gen Chem subjects like Kenetics.</p>
<p>It all depends on the flavor of MSE being taught at the school. Some lean more towards chemistry, some towards physics, some towards metallurgy, some towards science in general, and some towards straight up engineering.</p>
<p>I’ve found, in general, MSE is considerably more physics than chemistry, though. You’re more likely to use solid state physics than, say, MO theory.</p>
<p>Skim through the course descriptions, below, it should give you a much better feel for what’s involved.</p>
<p><a href=“https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/courses/descriptions/materials-science-and-engineering.aspx[/url]”>https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/courses/descriptions/materials-science-and-engineering.aspx</a></p>
<p>If you like Kinetics in Chem, you’re love “Energetics and Kinetics in Materials Science” :)</p>
<p>Well, I most likely will attend Rutgers for my Undergrad (hoping for CMU however). <a href=“http://mse.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/MSE%20curriculum-06-01-12.pdf[/url]”>http://mse.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/MSE%20curriculum-06-01-12.pdf</a> Thats the course listing, it seems more chemistry based than physics based, which has me being a little hesitant in picking the major. RacinReaver, I know you are at Cal-Tech right now, and Gator, if you have experiend MSE, can you tell me the difficulty of it? Such as most people associate EE being the most difficult, what is MSE like?</p>
<p>I’d say MSE is definitely easier than EE and ChemE, since a lot of things we do are more empirical equations than derived from first principles sorts of things. You will get your share of tough math in thermo, solid mechanics, and probably a taste of what ChemEs do in transport, but, in general, I found the actual difficulty of what I was doing to be less than that of my friends. That said, it can be difficult to develop the intuition you need to understand the problems you’ll be dealing with. Generally the answer is to either minimize free energy, it’s an Arrhenius equation, or dislocations.</p>
<p>I did MSE at CMU and loved it. The general comment from people that went to other schools is it’s a fairly theoretical program.</p>
<p>To quickly break down the Rutgers classes that seem to be from the department.</p>
<p>Crystal Chem & Structures: Basic crystallography class. You’ll probably approach it from a different manner than Chemists. You’ll be doing Hermann-Maguin notation vs Schoenfleiss (I probably spelled both of those wrong).</p>
<p>Materials Processing: Probably a class on how steel is made with maybe some stuff on plastics, ceramics, and semiconductors. It’s not going to be very chemistry heavy, probably more understanding how you process something changes its properties.</p>
<p>Thermodynamics: This is, like, 100% physics thermo. You’ll be minimizing Gibbs Free Energy instead of Helmholtz, though.</p>
<p>Kinetics: Closest class you’ll have to ChemE. Learn about how heat moves through materials. Then learn about how matter diffuses through materials.</p>
<p>Characterization: All sorts of ways to figure out *** is going on in your material. XRD, SEM, XPS, Raman, DSC, etc etc etc.</p>
<p>Strength of Materials: Solid mechanics. Probably some dislocation theory. Won’t see any of this in chem or physics.</p>
<p>EOM Properties: Electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of materials, most likely. Get to apply some quantum mechanics here (of the physics variety, not chem).</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for that breakdown. I will look into MSE some more, and see if it really is what I want. Just one last question, would you recommend me to not use my AP credit, to really get a good foundation, or is simply reviewing AP chem enough in the summer before freshmen year good enough?</p>
<p>I took credit for Calc BC, Physics C, Chem, CS, and some history classes. It let me finish my MSE BS with a minor in physics in 3.5 years, saving me a few thousand in loans (plus my parents more). I had a ton of flexibility in my scheduling, and was able to take a ton of electives almost my entire in college.</p>
<p>If you feel you understand the material at a college level you should be fine. If you really worry, take a look at finals from previous years and see if you feel comfortable with what they’re asking. (Keep in mind you don’t have to solve it right then at that moment, think if you could have solved it when you took the class.)</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your help RacinReaver, hopefully I can refer to you if I have some further questions in the upcoming year?(I am a rising HS senior) Going to try to get some research going as soon as I get to college, although it is very difficult.</p>
<p>Sure thing. Feel free to send me a PM on here. Research in your freshman year is a sort of interesting thing. You generally don’t know enough to be very useful, and you probably won’t have a whole lot of time to spend in the lab, but it’s still a worthwhile experience if you can get it. It’ll let you get the feel what it’s like working in a research lab and maybe see the sort of atmosphere you like. Just remember every lab is different, so just because you dislike one doesn’t mean you’ll dislike them all (and vice versa). I went through three groups in undergrad before I found one I really clicked with.</p>